Background

Before I start this review, I think I should give you a bit of background on my history of computer mice. Other than the crappy mice that are often included with pre-built computers, my main experience with computer mice has been the wonderful Microsoft IntelliMouse 4.0a. A classic mouse which introduced me to forward and back side-buttons that has served me well over the years but unfortunately was starting to fall apart. I've tried out a few different mice at friend's houses like the Razer Habu and the Logitech MX1000 but I've never really felt comfortable using them like with my IntelliMouse. Considering this, the Logitech G500 will be the first Logitech mouse that I've bought.

Setup

This was probably the easiest peripheral I’ve had to install, it was literally plug and play. By default there are 3 levels of sensitivity set on the mouse, 400 DPI, 800 DPI and 2000 DPI. You can set your own levels between 200 DPI and 5700 DPI (in 100 DPI gaps) within Logitech’s SetPoint software which you can download from their site. I would recommend you install SetPoint if you have this mouse as it allows you to change not only the sensitivity but also customize the buttons on the mouse. I’ll get more into that later.

Overall, setup was easy and pain free.

The Mouse

The G500 is the successor to the G5 mouse and as such shares a similar body shape. It has a total of 10 buttons, all of which except left click can be configured to your liking. There’s the usual left click, right click, middle mouse, forward thumb and backwards thumb buttons as well as a third programmable thumb button and DPI adjustment/plus and minus buttons.

The scroll wheel features both vertical and horizontal scrolling but one really special feature is the ball bearing that the scroll wheel has. The ball bearing allows you to spin the wheel with one swipe and it will keep spinning. There is also a click-for-click mode which is used for precision and is toggled by a small button just below the scroll wheel in the middle.
The DPI adjustment/plus and minus buttons lies to the left of the left click button and are within easy reach of your index finger; a very useful feature mid-game. There are also LED lights on the top that indicate what level the DPI is set to incase you forgot in the middle of a firefight.

The mouse has two different material textures for its body; there is the really smooth casing which rests underneath your palm which has a speckled marble effect and there’s the more rough part of the casing where your thumb, ring and little finger rest. Both feel pleasant to the touch and the rougher texture helps with keeping the mouse in your hands.

Underneath the body of the mouse is the opening for the laser tracker, 3 pieces of Teflon-like material and the weight cartridge slot. The weight cartridge can be customized with a set of weights. You get a choice of 1.7g or 4.5g weights which you can mix and match to suit your hand strength. These fit into the cartridge and just slide into the bottom of the mouse.

The sensor on the mouse has a maximum setting of 5700DPI and a maximum polling rate of 1000 reports/second which means really smooth and accurate movement for gamers. It uses a laser system as well which was able to track movement on any surface I tried it on, including the LCD panel of my monitor.

Usage

For the purpose of the review, I decided to wait a few days after receiving my mouse and play with it in a number of games to get a good feel for it. I decided on Counter-Strike: Source, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Quake, Quake 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Borderlands. I set my 5 levels of DPI to 300, 600, 1200, 2400 and 4800.

In most of the games, I was able to set the mouse sensitivity to the lowest setting and use my third DPI level to get a really nice smooth movement and responsiveness from the mouse. I did find that I was able to place my cursor exactly where I wanted which helped with getting the kills I wanted. When I was playing, and there was someone halfway across the map who I was trying to get a precise shot on, I found it really really easy to switch the DPI setting while in-game to a lower setting to allow for that more precise-aiming required in that situation. There is also a use for the really high DPI as well as in MW2, when someone had thrown a stun grenade, I was able to flip the DPI up to maximum and compensate for the reduced movement speed and react as normal. This definitely helped save me quite a few times.

As for the thumb buttons, they worked great. I set the forward and back buttons for next and previous weapons as I normally do with other mice but was also able to use the middle thumb button as a Push-to-talk button for Mumble/Ventrillo. This did require some setup though. I had to reassign the middle thumb button to a key on the keyboard since neither application recognised it as a generic button. Using the SetPoint software, I was able to set it to ‘=’ on my Numpad so I could use it for Push-to-talk.

For general Windows usage, it’s a pleasure to use. The free-scrolling mode of the scroll wheel feels nice to use when going through news websites and sites with a lot of text such as Wikipedia. Being able to lower your DPI on the fly is really useful as well for image editing and for selecting Excel tables accurately.

The actual SetPoint software from Logitech is well laid out and easy to use. Everything is clearly labelled and gives you the option to read more on what certain options do. It also uses very little resources on the system with the process only using 4,200KB of memory on my system.

Conclusion

Logitech has won my heart with this mouse. The ability to change sensitivity on the go easily has saved my butt a number of times already in-game and having my push-to-talk button on my mouse has meant that I can have my left hand focus on the movement and not worry about hitting Alt to call out to teammates. If you’re in the market for a new mouse, I can’t help but recommend the Logitech G500 whole-heartedly.

The Logitech G500 could be found on Newegg for US$56.99 at the time of writing this article.

Pros

* Ability to switch DPI on the fly
* Reprogammable buttons
* Customizable weight
* Free scrolling mouse wheel

Cons

* Costly  for some users who just want a regular mouse
* DPI and buttons cannot be customised without SetPoint
* Only one settings profile stored on the mouse at one time

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